Micropolis

By WNYC Studios

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CleanBeyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and the Power of Black Protest Music

Beyoncé. Kendrick Lamar. J Cole. Janelle Monae. Pop artists are increasingly speaking out against police violence these days, while amplifying the demands of Black Lives Matter in the process. This is in keeping with the spirit of the 1960s and

As New York's primary approaches, many voters are trying to make sense of the 2016 presidential race. For local artists, some want to do more than just understand, they want to influence the outcome of the election. And the candidate who has probably g

Should the U.S. ban Muslims from entering the country? Is radical Islam bent on taking over America? Ten or fifteen years ago, questions like these were largely relegated to the political fringes. Now, they help define the campaigns of the two leadin

On the surface, the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and the current boycott of the awards show Sunday night by Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee are about one thing: recognition. After all, actors of color want to feel acknowledged for their wo

Among the many striking aspects of the 2016 presidential race is this: 'political correctness' is regularly touted as one of our greatest societal evils. But it's not just Republican candidates: 68 percent of all Americans think 'P.C.' is a big pro

With their new video for "Hymn for the Weekend," shot in India, Beyoncé and Coldplay stumbled into a controversy that's been centuries in the making: the cultural appropriation debate. When is it okay to borrow from another culture, and when does t

Beyond all the usual demands of child rearing, Muslim parents in America have their own set of problems. They're more likely to worry about their kids being bullied or called names. In the wake of the Paris attacks, people around the world have tried

The Obama administration announced that the U.S. would take in 85,000 refugees next year, including 10,000 Syrians. That's up from 70,000 this year, but still far short of what the nation's taken in during previous refugee crises. In 1980, for instance

For many tennis fans, the story of Serena Williams begins in 2001 at the Indian Wells Masters tournament. While 19-year-old Serena was on the court, facing off against Kim Clijsters, her sister Venus and father Richard Williams entered the stadium

ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat," based on Eddie Huang's memoir of the same name, premiered last week on a wave of hype. This is the first Asian-American sitcom since Margaret Cho's "All American Girl." What took so long? In this episode of Micropolis, we c

When he was 17 years old, Kedar Powell's dad handed him a jar filled with $25 in change and kicked him out of the house. "'This is what you want to do? Bye,'" Kedar recalls his dad saying. "And that's how life started for me." Kedar is gay. His fath

America has a long history of religious hucksterism — people who have used God to sell everything from widgets to wars. But in a cynical city like New York, Micropolis wonders if that tactic can possibly work. “Hector the Inventor" says he has

Hema Ramaswamy, a resident of Middletown, New Jersey has Down syndrome, but that didn’t stop her from rigorously studying Indian classical dance and mythology for years, and giving a grueling solo performance before hundreds of friends and family mem

For those in the business of Muslim P.R., 2014 has been a pretty rough year. In the wake of ISIS beheadings and movements like Boko Haram, Americans increasingly believe that Islam encourages violence more than other religions. This, despite research

The “War on Christmas” has become a perennial rallying cry on Fox News and conservative talk radio. But in multicultural New York City, even non-Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas get a kick out of the holiday spirit. Micropolis talks t

Nihal Kajjam remembers the precise moment when he encountered the Hare Krishnas in New York. He was wearing jeans and a black Megadeth t-shirt and was walking near the statue of Gandhi, in Union Square. And then he heard a small group of people dressed

In the days since the shooting death of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., international attention has been focused on the racial divide in this St. Louis suburb. But Ferguson is hardly an anomaly. It is in fact similar to many c

New York has more foreign-born residents than any other city in the world: more than L.A. or Hong Kong, and two-and-a-half times as many as London. But in this latest episode of Micropolis, we consider what's lost when people of different cultures and

Last week, the Queens D.A. sent out a release about the conviction of 18-year-old Harpreet Singh, of Maspeth. The conviction followed a seriously disturbing incident: Singh had gotten in touch with a 16-year-old girl on MySpace, at first asking her for